A Marian balcony over the vall de Lillet
Falgars is a level clearing perched on the mountainside at almost 1,300 metres, with a sanctuary, a pilgrims' hostel, a viewpoint at each end and, further down, hidden on the shady north slope, the cave where tradition says the Virgin appeared.
It lies south-west of La Pobla de Lillet, on the northern edge of the Serra de Catllaràs. From down in the village it is hard to imagine there is so much to see up there; from the top, by contrast, you see the whole of La Pobla, small at the bottom of the valley, with the ranges of the Pyrenees behind. It is one of those places you climb to for the sanctuary and end up remembering for the views.
This page brings together the seven points we visit at Falgars, in the order you come across them arriving from the Xalet de Catllaràs: the cross of the two priests on the track, the spring, the sanctuary, the Mirador Joan Casanova, the Faig Reposador, the Mirador del Pedraforca and, last of all, the Cova de la Verge, which has a section of its own because it is where the whole story begins. The photographs are our own.
Explored and photographed by Josep Heras Gomis, who has a house at the masia del Pati in Borredà and travels the Serra de Catllaràs every season, by 4x4 and on foot. The points are part of the route La Pobla de Lillet - Fonts del Llobregat - Serra de Catllaràs, published on Wikiloc, and are described in the author's books on the area (2018). The historical and heritage-listing data come from the Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya, as published in the Mapes de Patrimoni Cultural of the Diputació de Barcelona, and from the Enciclopèdia Catalana. Last revised: September 2026.
A thousand years of documents on the mountain
The name Falgars first appears in a document of the year 985: the consecration act of the church of Sant Cristòfol de Vallfogona mentions it as a reference point for marking boundaries. There is no church yet. That comes in 1120, when a married couple, Ramon and Elisardis, gave it together with their land to the monastery of Sant Llorenç prop Bagà, on condition that the monks kept up worship there. Over the following centuries bequests kept arriving, and by the fourteenth century Falgars was already a centre of devotion for the whole district.
The church you see today is a different one. In 1646 the first stone of the rebuilding was laid, and of the Romanesque building only a few remains are left, lost within the complex. The hostel went up a little later to house pilgrims and those who looked after the sanctuary, and it has grown through successive extensions.
The twentieth century dealt it the hardest blow: in 1936, during the Civil War, the Baroque altar was burned and the image of the Virgin broke into four pieces. In 1947 mossèn (Father) Joan Orriols managed to get the restoration work under way. Today the sanctuary is protected as a cultural asset of local interest.
The seven points of Falgars
| Point | What it is | Access | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creu dels mossèns Joan Orriols i Josep Binefa | Iron cross on a rock | On a bend of the track, by car | 42.223169, 1.951846 |
| Font de Falgars | Spring at the entrance to the site | By car | 42.225634, 1.947333 |
| Santuari de Falgars | Marian sanctuary, church rebuilt in 1646 | By car to the clearing | 42.227307, 1.945677 |
| Mirador Joan Casanova | Viewpoint over the vall de Lillet | On foot, east end | 42.227591, 1.948385 |
| El Faig Reposador | Beeches and a cross on the path to La Pobla | On foot, downhill | 42.227375, 1.951083 |
| Mirador del Pedraforca | Framed view of the Pedraforca | On foot, west end | 42.228155, 1.941320 |
| Cova de la Verge de Falgars | Grotto of the finding tradition | Track and 200 m on foot | 42.230186, 1.944611 |
The order is the one you arrive in coming up the track from the Xalet de Catllaràs; the cave is left for the way down to La Pobla. Altitudes range from 1,279 metres at the sanctuary to 1,068 at the cave, which lies some two hundred metres lower, deep in the shady north slope.
Creu dels mossèns and Font de Falgars
If you come up from the Catllaràs side, the first thing that announces Falgars is a wrought-iron cross set on a crag, on a bend of the track, about 400 metres before you arrive. It is very beautiful and worth a short stop. It remembers two priests, mossèn Joan Orriols and mossèn Josep Binefa, who died in 1967 when their car went over the edge into the ravine on this very bend. Joan Orriols was the curate of La Pobla de Lillet and the chaplain in charge of the Falgars sanctuary.
Getting to the cross: a track heads west from the monastery of Santa Maria de Lillet. After about 4 km you reach a junction: to the left you go to the Xalet de Catllaràs and, by the track furthest to the left of all, to Falgars. The cross is 1.5 km from that junction, on a bend.
Right at the entrance to the path that leads to the clearing is the Font de Falgars, a small spring beside a stone monolith, with a low wall and a trough. It is the obvious place to cool down and fill your water bottle before doing the rest of the points on foot.
Coordinates: Creu dels mossèns 42.223169, 1.951846 · 1,258 m · map — Font de Falgars 42.225634, 1.947333 · 1,256 m · map
Santuari de Falgars
It is a Marian sanctuary in the municipality of La Pobla de Lillet, on the Falgars ridge. From outside it reads as a single block, long and massive: the church and the hostel joined together, with thick stone walls, a gabled roof of Arabic tiles and some vaulted rooms. The newest part of the hostel is a wing at right angles to the church with a porch covered by a false vault. The church has a bell gable with two openings rising from the middle of the roof.
The oldest thing it keeps is the Romanesque ironwork of the old door. The wood is modern, but the iron is medieval: flat bands laid side by side and split by a central rib, curling at the ends into volutes; on one leaf they run horizontally and on the other vertically. According to the heritage inventory, it is now on the inner door that connects the church with the house.
The image venerated here is a Gothic carving in polychrome alabaster: a standing, crowned Virgin nursing the Child. It is the one that broke into four pieces in 1936 and was later restored. The Diputació's heritage record states that the original is kept at the sanctuary and shown on particular feast days, while for the rest of the year a replica is on display.
Next to the sanctuary there is a hostel with a restaurant and, behind the restaurant, a picnic area with several tables. According to La Pobla town council, the main feast is on 8 September and is celebrated on the nearest Sunday. For church or hostel opening times, please check with them directly or with the town council.
Getting there: you can drive right up to the clearing, either by the road that climbs from La Pobla or by the track from the Catllaràs that passes the priests' cross. If you are doing the whole Catllaràs route and are short of time, Falgars is the part that takes longest; you can leave it out, but it would be a pity.
Coordinates: 42.227307, 1.945677 · 1,279 m above sea level · open in map
Mirador Joan Casanova
It occupies the eastern end of the Falgars clearing and you recognise it at once by a large stone with the name engraved on it: "Mirador" running vertically and "Joan Casanova" horizontally. Behind the stone the view opens to the north.
And it is a view that justifies the climb: the whole valley, La Pobla de Lillet at your feet, Castellar de n'Hug higher up and, in the background, the mountains of the Pyrenees, from the Cadí to La Molina and the Serra de Montgrony. The photo of the village at the top of this page was taken from here, in winter.
Getting there: on foot from the sanctuary, walking east across the clearing; it is about two hundred metres.
Coordinates: 42.227591, 1.948385 · 1,265 m above sea level · open in map
El Faig Reposador
The Serra de Catllaràs has several century-old beeches, some of them monumental. The Faig Reposador stands, with others, on a very picturesque little path that runs down from Falgars towards La Pobla de Lillet. Beside them there is an iron cross on a stone pillar, with painted trail markings, telling you that the church of Falgars is close.
To be honest, it is above all a sign that you are nearly at the clearing. If you are walking up or down between La Pobla and Falgars it is worth a stop; if you are already at the top with the car, it is not worth going down specially.
Getting there: from the Mirador Joan Casanova, carrying on about two hundred metres further east along the path that drops towards La Pobla.
Coordinates: 42.227375, 1.951083 · 1,241 m above sea level · open in map
Mirador del Pedraforca
It is at the western tip of Falgars, at the opposite end from the Mirador Joan Casanova. As the name says, you come here to see the Pedraforca, and the trick is simple: there is a mark on the ground, you stand on it and the mountain fits neatly between two trees, its double summit sharply outlined.
It is probably the most photogenic image of the whole visit to Falgars.
Getting there: on foot from the sanctuary, heading west; it is about four hundred metres in a straight line. The two viewpoints are a little under six hundred metres apart.
Coordinates: 42.228155, 1.941320 · 1,271 m above sea level · open in map
The Cova de la Verge de Falgars
Like so many mountain shrines to the Virgin, Falgars has its story of a finding, and it is one of the lovely ones. Tradition tells that a shepherd from Saus was out with his ox on the shady slope of Falgars when he noticed the animal making strange signs in front of a cave. He went closer and there, among the ferns, he found an image of the Virgin.
Those ferns, falgueres in Catalan, give the place its name: Falgars would be "the place of the ferns". The image was taken down to the monastery of La Pobla de Lillet, and it stayed there until a chapel was built for it where the sanctuary stands today.
It should be read for what it is: a legend. That is how it is recorded in the author's books on the area (2018), which take it from local tradition; in the sanctuary's entry in the Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya, which adds the detail of the ox making signs; and by La Pobla town council. Tradition places the apparition in the eleventh century, before the Romanesque church documented in 1120. According to the record for the carving, that original image has disappeared, and the Gothic alabaster one venerated today would be its replacement. The town council gives the usual explanation found in these stories: that the image had been hidden by people fleeing some conflict.
The cave you visit today is a landscaped grotto: according to the inventory, it was built in 1886 by Florenci Piera and touched up in 1888 by Pere Barnola, who respected what was there. It lies halfway down the shady slope. Inside, behind a white railing with spear-shaped tips, there is a small image of the Virgin nursing the Child, surrounded by flowers, ribbons and small offerings left by visitors.
Getting there by car and on foot: when you leave Falgars, take the road to the right, the opposite direction from the one you arrived by if you came from the Catllaràs; it is the one that goes straight down to La Pobla. About 4 km from Falgars a track climbs off to the right, marked with a sign. After about 300 metres another sign sends you right along a path that can no longer be driven: on foot, in about 200 metres, you reach the cave. Then go back to the road and carry on to La Pobla.
On foot from the sanctuary: you can also go down from behind the sanctuary, descending the shady slope. In a straight line it is just over three hundred metres away, but with a drop of about two hundred metres that you then have to climb back up.
Coordinates: 42.230186, 1.944611 · 1,068 m above sea level · open in map
How to organise it and where to stay
Falgars works in two ways. As a half-day outing from La Pobla, driving up the road, walking round the clearing and stopping at the cave on the way down. Or as the finale of a longer route through the range: the author's starts in La Pobla, passes the Fonts del Llobregat, the monastery of Santa Maria de Lillet, the Xalet de Catllaràs and the Roca de la Lluna, and ends at Falgars and the cave before dropping back to the village. It is about 55 km and, with all the visits, around seven hours: three driving and four stopping.
The tracks are usually in good condition, but depending on the season they may be wet and some stretches become difficult in a car not prepared for the mountains. On the clearing, the easy order is sanctuary, Mirador Joan Casanova, Mirador del Pedraforca and, as you leave, the cave. For the rest of the range, the mines and the other viewpoints, see the Serra de Catllaràs page.
Our three places to stay in La Pobla de Lillet are a few kilometres from Falgars, are let whole and take pets at no extra cost:
- Cadí Triplex: 150 m² on three floors, 5 bedrooms, a fireplace and a wood-fired range.
- Catllaràs Apartment: for 4 people, with 2 bedrooms.
- Adapted apartment: designed for people with reduced mobility.
Frequently asked questions about Falgars Sanctuary
Why is it called Falgars?
According to tradition, a shepherd from Saus and his ox found an image of the Virgin among ferns, falgueres in Catalan, in a cave on the shady slope. The name would come from that. The place name has been documented since the year 985.
Where is the Cova de la Verge and how do you get there?
It is on the shady slope below the sanctuary, at 1,068 metres. You reach it by the road that goes down from Falgars to La Pobla: after about 4 km, a signposted track on the right, 300 metres of track and 200 metres on foot. You can also walk down from behind the sanctuary.
How old is the sanctuary?
Falgars is documented in 985 and the church in 1120, when Ramon and Elisardis gave it to the monastery of Sant Llorenç prop Bagà. The present building began to be rebuilt in 1646 and keeps the Romanesque ironwork of the old door.
What image is venerated at Falgars?
A Gothic carving in polychrome alabaster of the crowned Virgin nursing the Child. It broke into four pieces in 1936 and was restored. According to the heritage record, the original is shown on particular feast days and a replica is on display for the rest of the year.
Where can you see the Pedraforca from?
From the Mirador del Pedraforca, at the western end of the clearing. There is a mark on the ground: standing on it, the mountain is framed between two trees. The Mirador Joan Casanova, at the eastern end, looks instead towards La Pobla and the Cadí.
Can it be combined with the Xalet de Catllaràs?
Yes. From the Xalet you go back to the junction of tracks and take the one furthest to the left; after 1.5 km comes the priests' cross and, 400 metres later, Falgars. That is the order the author's route follows.